Sunday, August 30, 2009

The Law of Attraction. I always hear these words recently from my friends, others, internet. Two friends of mine introduced to me the Law of Attraction. Both of them are saying that I'll really get anything I want if I am aware of this law of attraction. This made me laugh and curious. One of them told me to watch this 20 minute or so video in Youtube titled The Secret. And so I did. But somewhere in the middle of the video I stopped for I notice some serious flaw in the logic of this "law" of attraction and I just can't help myself (laughing and shocked). I was really skeptical about this "law" of attraction so I made a research on the net and studied (at least a little) this LOA.

According to proponents of this law, thoughts have an energy which attracts whatever it is the person is thinking of. In order to control this energy to one's advantage, proponents state that people must practice four things:

Know exactly what you want.

Ask the universe for it.

Feel, behave and know as if the object of your desire is already yours (visualize).

Be open to receive it and let go of (the attachment to) the outcome.

Thinking of what one does not have, they say, manifests itself in not having, while if one abides by these principles, and avoids "negative" thoughts, the universe will manifest a person's desires. (wikipedia)

Do you really think that by simply thinking (and acting) of something, say success, would really give you that thing (sucess)? Do you think that you will pass the board exam just by thinking that you will pass that exam without working hard? Of course not. One must work hard to get something you want. Simply thinking of it will bring you nowhere. But how about the stories of success in the video? Well they are just anecdotals (hearsay) and because of the self-selecting nature of the positive reports, as well as the subjective nature of any results, highly susceptible to confirmation bias and selection bias *. I mean these people are successful because they worked hard and not because they just simply think what they want. And some people just relate these successes and claim to have been the result of the Law of Attraction.

Also, one of the luminaries of the Law of Attraction, Joe Vitale, claims that LOA is really a scientific law and that it works "everytime - no exceptions". LOL. Hmm lets see. Imagine a boxing match. Both boxers are positive that they will win the fight yet one of them only won. Or when wagers on both side are positive that their bet will win yet only one of them won. What can LOA say about that? Well this only shows that LOA is not really a scientific law as one of the luminaries claim for it do not produce predictable and repeatable results. (Thanks to Skeptico for the idea)

Despite the criticisms and glaring flaw of LOA, many people still believe in this (forgive my word) crap. The idea of LOA is very similar to the concept of prayer which, eh, do not work. These people are just fooled by the marketing of The Secret.

4
comments:

I want to add that you have to recognize also the signs that the universe is giving you as well, meaning you have to take action on what is put before you, otherwise you will never reach your goal. The guys that did this product I've been talking about: http://www.prosperable.com/loa, they are launching a site on Sept 9th, dedicated to showing people how to use LOA to manifest money in their lives. It's free to join, and here is the link if you are interested: http://www.howtomanifestmoney.com

So one must also take action then. So what's the point of LOA? It would become superfluous. Based on the proponents of that law, LOA is very similar (if not the same) to wishful thinking. Now if one would take action, then the reason why one would succeed is because that person took action and not because of wishful thinking.

Also you mentioned "that you have to recognize also the signs that the universe is giving you as well". Hmm. The universe do not care about us/life. The universe do not 'give/show' signs to us.

About the author

I'm a man on a journey of self discovery. Along this road, I have to wage a battle against superstition, ignorance and deception. Fighting the forces of false hope and blind faith to pave way for the rise of reason and logic.